St. Johns Football Opens Camp With 202 Players And Big Expectations

The St. John's football team is gearing up for the regular season.  Johnnie head coach Gary Fasching joined me on WJON to discuss their first week of practice.  The student athletes arrived on campus Wednesday and the team held their first practice Thursday.  Fasching says they have 100 first year players among the approximately 202 players on the roster.  He says the players have their names taped on their helmets, which helps, but they also have methods of putting names with faces.

Top Returners

Fasching believes they have a good group of players returning including starting quarterback, senior Trey Feeney.  In addition to Feeney, Fasching says they return 3 starters on the offensive line, and most of their running backs.  He says they lost most of the top receivers but they do return senior Riley Schwellenbach at the position.  He had 50 catches for 817 yards and 6 touchdowns in 2025.  SJU lost top pass catchers Dylan Wheeler and Joey Gendreau to graduation.  St. John's returns 7 starters on the defensive side of the ball.

Preseason Honors

St. John's has received lots of preseason recognition including being ranked #11 in the d3football.com preseason poll and offensive lineman Michael Bougie was named to the 2026 D3football.com Preseason All-America first team.

Season Opener

The Johnnies will open the season against 10th ranked UW-La Crosse at 1pm on September 5 in Collegeville.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Gary Fasching, click below.